Skoti wrote: Choice one , looking forward to defending Team Delta Ones 1st place from last year , we will be back and here's a look at last years winner . |
Gurnard respond to many techniques, softbaiting, inchiku/madai jigs, bait and most likely micro & slow jigs.
The trick with jigs and softbaits is to fish them slowly without a lot of vertical movement. I’ve caught gurnard in 50m on inchiku jigs with the rod left in the rod holder. Even on relatively calm days with the lure cast out and the rod left alone, the movement of the boat has given the lure enough movement to tempt a curious gurnard. I have caught them on jigs between 40g & 100g.
For softbaits I use something like a curly tail or crazy legs, something with plenty of action especially in new penny or pumpkinseed type colours although I haven’t done much softbaiting for gurnard recently it is very effective.
Standard type softbaiting techniques and gear works well for gurnard but with baits I’m more fussy.
For bait fishing, flasher rigs are hard to beat. Choose one with a recurve hook in 4/0 size. I like Tarakihi Terrors and Gurnard Grabbers. I don’t use flasher rigs much either, simply because home made dropper rigs are cheaper and I catch plenty gurnard anyway. One thing I do with flasher rigs though is shorten the distance between the bottom hook and the sinker so that the hook sits on the sea floor along with the sinker. Don’t go too big with your baits and make sure the hook barb is well clear of the bait. Good baits to use are mullet, skipjack (bonito) pilchard cubes and mushy old frozen kahawai. Squid can work well at times but I tend not to use it much as it I find the other baits more reliable.
The fussiness part comes from the way I fish baits. I’ll usually make sure that there are three different rigs in use. I’ll generally use a two hook dropper, cast a stray lined bait out behind the boat and if there is current flow I’ll drop down a running rig with a dropper tied halfway along the trace. A deadly alternative is to rig up a flasher as a running rig.
When fishing a dropper rig I like to keep the line between rod tip and the sinker taut. A very small amount of up and down can help too. Most importantly though is not to strike the baits straight away. A gurnard bite is usually very recognisable by a slow nodding of the rod tip. I don’t strike until about the third or fourth ‘nod’ and then I just lift the rod and wind four or five times. Don’t give it a hell strike or the hook is likely to slip out the fish’s huge mouth. A half hearted movement on the rod tip is only telling the gurnard there’s something suspicious about that lump of dead fish it’s trying to eat.
I use sharp hooks, size 4/0 or 5/0 recurves and light line. A 15lb trace is fine and 6lb braid is good too. I also use berley but it’s important to have it very close to the bottom. Gurnard will come right up to the berley bag but with light gear you don’t want to get caught up in it.
I fish shallow water generally from 2m to 10m and look for guts running up onto banks, especially on outgoing tides. Here’s my favourite spot, S37⁰ 05.366’ E174⁰ 40.109’ A Grunter Hunter winner was caught right here by forum member Wayno.
Here are the rules:
If cancelled due to bad weather the follow up day is June 7 2015 – Cancellations on Ch 5 at 6.00pm the night before the comp
MANUKAU HARBOUR & WEST COAST ENTRY FEE: ADULT $30 16 & UNDER $10
OPEN TO ALL – ANYONE CAN FISH
SPOT PRIZES - RAFFLES
There is only one category prizes for 1ST to 10TH Heaviest gurnard - Juniors compete for the same prizes as adults
QUALITY PRIZES COMPLIMENTARY BBQ
RULES:
1 Anglers must present their ticket to the Weighmaster to be eligible for prizes even if not weighing a fish
2 All fish must be caught on a rod & reel
3 Fishing starts at 12.01am Sunday May 31st. Weigh in is from 3.00pm to 4.00pm. Anglers must be in the weigh in queue at the Te Toro Green Shed by 4.00pm on the day of the competition – no exceptions
4 Anglers may fish the Manukau Harbour or Auckland’s West Coast
5 There will be no drawn prizes apart from Spot prizes. EG no 10th place fish – no prize drawn
6 Spot Prize winners must be present to claim prizes
7 Juniors must be 16 or younger on May 31
8 Only one gurnard may be weighed per angler. If two fish the same weight are weighed then the first of those fish weighed will be deemed to be the heaviest
9 There will be no alcohol sales at the venue
10 Safety is every skippers responsibility.
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